Pleasure and Pain in the Moonlight

There is something truly magical about the combination of a bright full moon, clear nights in the mountains, and fresh powder. Everything suddenly becomes bathed not in full color or even black and white, but rather silver and blue. It’s ethereal. I’ve always loved full moons ever since I was in junior high and full moons meant toilet papering the girls we had a crush on with my band of friends. Now I just like to run or fish or ski on those silvery, magical nights. But if you want to ski those full moons, you only really have 3 good opportunities to do so in the Heart of Winter:  January, February, March.  I’ve learned this by doing full moon ski tours for the last 4 years.

 Last night was my second to last chance at skiing one of these 3 precious winter full moons, and I didn’t want to risk waiting until March. There always is the risk that a full moon happens the night a blizzard rolls in, after all… And I didn’t want to ruin my tradition of missing my annual full-moon tour, something I had faithfully done for the last 4 years.

The kids’ heads finally hit the pillow at 9:16 pm. After prep and transport, I was finally skinning up Grizzly Gulch by 10:04 pm. The first thing I saw when arriving on the trail was way too many people on the same trail.  Night tours are supposed to be an unknown and unpopular way of skiing – or so I thought! I longed for some separation from the crowds to truly embrace the night.

That separation didn’t come until after arriving at Patsey Marley Peak. While most people stopped there to ski what was becoming the mogul field off Patseys, I gazed eastward toward my target of Mount Wolverine. I quickly worked my way around Wolverine Cirque to the peak.  The views from Mount Wolverine are breath-taking because you can see the glittering lights of Heber as well as you can see those from Salt Lake, not to mention both Brighton and Alta ski resorts. The snow cats at both places were out. I saw a few headlights of other skiers around the range taking advantage of the moon. The coolest by far was seeing 3 skiers boot up the dark fissure of Suicide Chute on Mount Superior under the moonlight. Meanwhile, my plan was to explore the terrain north and east of Mount Wolverine on the telemark skis with the 7” of fresh pow that hadn’t been sun-baked or wind-blasted yet.

It did not disappoint. The first run was through creamy powder in the wide open Tuscarora Bowl, right underneath the cliff bands of Mount Tuscarora. That craggy peak looked so ominous against the moon.  After arriving almost to the shores of Lake Martha, I skinned all the way back up to Mount Wolverine again.  

Still amped from my first run and wanting more, I decided to explore the northern terrain for the next lap. I skied the Wolverine Chutes and then on to the steep Mary Chutes, fanning out onto the shores of frozen Lake Mary. Sheltered and soft, quiet and untracked, the Mary Chutes skied so amazingly well that I just had to do them again. So I booted directly back up the gut of the main Mary Chute to ski them again for a mini 3^rd lap. It was as if I had those chutes all to myself in a total dark solitude. Constraints of time and fatigue were forgotten all together while relishing in my telemark turns in the moonlight.   

I then skinned from Lake Mary up to Mount Wolverine for a 3^rd and final view from the summit. My plan for the exit was to drop into the Wolverine Cirque, down Figure 8 Hill, up and out through Twin Lakes Pass and back down Grizzly. However, each chute I inspected from Wolverine Cirque was skied out and icy so I decided to abort this plan. By this time, my legs and eyelids were truly getting heavy -the fatigue was finally overpowering the adrenaline.

I finally decided to ski southwest, down into Alta, on a very steep, icy, and wind-blasted return run, all with quivering legs. Not the greatest finishing lap, but still worth it to explore that area. It was amazing to see how totally different my experience was on the east and north sides of the compass compared to that on the west and south sides of the compass.

Finally arriving back at the car, both exhausted and exhilarated, I checked the time again. 3:37 a.m. My promised 2-hour tour turned into a 5-hour tour. Ouch. The wife had called and texted me 4 times, with no reply from me. I immediately called her back to tell her I was safe and sound, to her great relief. And I’m glad I did because, by the sound of things, her next call was likely going to be Search and Rescue. :) My only stop from there was a celebratory cup of hot cocoa at the 7-11. I felt it was well-deserved after my 5-hour bout of Pleasure and Pain on Mount Wolverine.

p.s. I know, I know...blog entries are lame without pictures.  I tried to take some, believe me. But I have since learned that I don’t have the right camera for decent night time photos.  As compensation, please enjoy this GoPro video with some good tunes of me and my sister in the same area, but in the day light. Pictures may be worth a thousand words but videos are worth a million pictures.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ijW8Ear-RA